Japan Han Hatsu?

I was out looking for coins today and found this. The label says it is Japanese han hatsu. Can someone tell me more about it?

 

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interesting piece. i never heard of these.

 

I hadn't seen one like this before today either. The description on the label is vague at best

 

This is a nice piece of Hansatsu.
These Japanese notes were used as a form of local money, and were quite prolific. They can usually be had for very affordable prices, which is not bad, considering that most were issued from the 1700's to the 1800's.
Your note has a denomination of 1 Silver Monme - a monme being an older unit of weight being at 3.75 grams.
The figure at top is Daikoku, or rather the Sanmen Daikoku. He is one of the gods of fortune.
You can read a little more about Hansatsu here: http://www.banknoteden.com/Japan.html

 

Wow. Thanks. I only paid $12 for it so I didn't do too bad. Any idea what year or area it is from?

 

Very interesting article about these notes. I wish I was able to read Japanese though now.

 

I'm glad you liked my article.

Your note was issued in 1864 by a temple called Kanren, which I think means 'connection/relation'. I can't pinpoint it precisely, but I think it is from the Toba clan (han).

Part of the trouble with these notes is that, besides my speaking only English, and a little Spanish, there are different styles of writing on them. You'd think that Japanese Kanji would be the main one, but it's Chinese, and they have different scripts: Seal scripts, clerical scripts, formal scripts... and then there are the handwritten ones - some not so easily recognizable. That's tough when you're trying to match up a symbol with thousands of others in a book. It's a big puzzle a lot of times.

12 Dollars is a pretty decent price - especially in that condition. I usually spend about 10-15 dollars, but I recently spent 30 dollars on one - just because it had a mouse on it (my wife likes mice in artwork). It was supposed to be a fairly scarce note, but that might mean that its only scare in the western part of the world!